Editorial: Around Florida

Published Thursday, January 23, 2003

The Miami Herald, on downlisting the Florida Manatee from endangered to threatened status:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will make a decision on Thursday that is crucial for the future of the West Indian manatee, an endangered species found only in Florida waters in the United States. The Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, a recreational-fishing group, wants the commission to remove the manatee from the endangered list. This would be folly, as there is no scientific data to justify lifting the boat-speed limits, dock restrictions and other protections that have begun to restore the manatee population here.

Biologists with the FFWCC conducted their annual count of manatees earlier this month. They found 1,166 manatees on the Gulf of Mexico coast and 1,695 along the Atlantic Ocean coast. That heartening total of 2,861 sounds impressive, but a one-day glimpse of an animal population tells us little about its overall condition. Nor is it especially accurate, as it shows only those manatees swimming in warm water areas on a single day. We may know that the population is close to 3,000, but we don't know the ratio of males to females, how many females are young and healthy enough to reproduce or even how many calves exist.

We also don't know the health condition of the overall population, thus we ignore its degree of susceptibility to a disease that could decimate it. Without this information, which requires years of research, no one can legitimately say that the manatee is out of danger and that its population is stable enough to withstand a shrinking habitat and an increasing number of boats in Florida's waters.

Science, not the political influence of a special-interest group, should drive the listing and delisting of any species. It is the latter that is driving the notion of removing the manatee's protections; the conservation commission ought to heed the cautions of scientists on this issue...

It is far too early to even consider delisting the manatee. The commission should send that message to recreational boaters in the most emphatic way possible.